The bodies of 47 women and children, some with their throats slit, were found in the restive Syrian city of Homs after a "massacre" that sent families fleeing the area, activists and the opposition said on Monday.
Syria's information minister accused "terrorist gangs" of carrying out the killings in order to incite international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
"Terrorist gangs carried out the most horrible massacre in the Karm el-Zaytoun neighbourhood of Homs in order to incite international reaction against Syria," the minister, Adnan Mahmoud, told AFP.
The grisly murders come after UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan warned yesterday that the situation in Syria had reached a "dangerous" level, as he failed to conclude a deal to end violence rocking the country during a weekend mission to Damascus.
Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian activist in Homs, told AFP the bodies of 26 children and 21 women, some with their throats slit and others bearing stab wounds, were found after a "massacre" in the Karm el-Zaytoun and Al-Adawiyeh neighbourhoods of the besieged central city.
"Some of the children had been hit with blunt objects on their heads, one little girl was mutilated and some women were raped before being killed," he said.
Activists posted videos online that showed graphic images of charred bodies and children with mutilated and bloodied faces.
Syrian state television also aired gruesome footage showing homes with white walls splattered with blood, bodies of women and children piled on top of each other, and several men, with bullet wounds to the head, lying facing down in a disused building, their hands tied behind their backs.
